I've been a busy simian lately.
I apologize for my lack of attention to this blog.  Life happens.

(image borrowed from here -- art by Doug Horne) 

And so does death.
Sadly, with much sniffling and sentiment, I saw that the world lost a visionary today.

Ray Bradbury.
He was 91 years old. What a life! A fantastic writer and an interesting human being that should have lived forever.  Yes. He should have. When Bradbury was twelve years old he was given a gift by a carnie. Mr. Electrico touched young Ray on the tip of his nose with a magic (electrically charged) sword and proclaimed, "YOU WILL LIVE FOREVER!"
I read somewhere that that was the day Ray Bradbury started writing in earnest. He wrote over four hundred novelettes and short stories, twenty-one plays, twenty-seven novels (I'm sure my count is off), countless screenplays, essays, and anthologies... Bradbury's books and short stories served as a beacon for other writers and artists...a light to journey by, a stepping stone in the quest to become a teller of tales.
Fahrenheit 451 made me treasure the written word. His science fiction glimpsed the future and helped brilliant minds achieve the technology.

He said : If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.


I guess he will live forever. In the tales he created.

I have to smile at the irony of my internet homage to the man. Ray Bradbury felt the world had become disconnected due to technology... too much internet and cell phones he said. Technology was the bane of his existence :

Video games are a waste of time for men with nothing else to do. Real brains don't do that. On occasion? Sure. As relaxation? Great. But not full time— And a lot of people are doing that. And while they're doing that, I'll go ahead and write another novel.

• Salon.com (29 August 2001)

• People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it. Better yet, build it. Predicting the future is much too easy, anyway. You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same. To hell with more. I want better.
  • Beyond 1984: The People Machines

I would love to have been a fly on the wall during his meetings in the 30's with the members of  the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society -- Heinlein, Petaja, Kuttner, Williamson, and good old "Forry" Forest J. Ackerman. Oh. I would have loved that.

Thank you, Mr. Bradbury, for inspiring me to write. Be well in the afterlife. You earned it.